Surely, one of the greatest dangers of online conversation is producing a dialog, to be preserved forever, in which — looking back — you'll see that you were talking past people you with whom you were arguing.
How embarrassing. What a waste of your best efforts, your brand, and your reputation. It takes a broad-minded person to examine such situations in hindsight and confess to such errors.
Robert S. McNamara, who died last year at the age of 93,both lived long enough and reflected hard enough to speak out, write about, and take responsibility for many of his actions in World War II, at Ford Motor Co., during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and, especially, in Vietnam serving as Defense Secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. His candor was remarkable, even if some people say he did not go far enough.
I just watched his film, "The Fog of War," and found it fascinating. It consists of 11 lessons for life, many of them matters of being conscious to all possibilities in a given situation where communication is pressured by conflict and mistrust — such as in war, and especially across racial and ideological boundaries such as between the United States and the Soviet Union.
R.S. McNamara's eleven lessons of life, many derived from war:






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